SRR will open its doors to submissions May 15! We're seeking authors with fresh voices to be included in issue 2. Allow me to introduce you to the lovely and talented Sarah Certa. I caught up with Sarah to find out about her current life as a writer and contributing editor.

Crystal Gibbins: What is one of your favorite pieces from SRR’s inaugural issue? 

Sarah Certa: I keep coming back to Ros Zimmerman's graphic narrative. It's unlike anything I've seen lately and is so open, so haunting. I linger on it; it lingers on me, like some ghost from a past I can't quite recall but feel on the tip of my tongue. 

CG:  What things do you like to see show up in the submission queue?

SC:  I like honesty. Poems that were written out of necessity. Poems rooted in everyday life and imagery and relationships yet somehow leave me feeling like I've been rocketed into the cosmos. Dirty human things. Music. 

CG: Who is your favorite writer? And, why?

SC: I have so many favorites! My newest favorite is Ana Božičević—her poems are a winding journey through her psyche, blurring the lines between dreams and reality, bizarre and entirely original. Everyone should read this recent review of her work! 

I really have so many favorites, but at the top of the list are Frank O'Hara, Richard Brautigan, Clarice Lispector (I'm starting with all the dead people), Anne Sexton, Dorothea Lasky, Matthew Zapruder, Matthew Dickman, Gregory Sherl, and Emmalea Russo. 

CG:  What or who are you reading lately?

SC: In addition to Ana Božičević's poems, this week I'm also reading Anne Sexton's Self-Portrait in Letters and a book of short essays by John Berger called The Shape of a Pocket. 

CG: What are you working on right now?

SC:  Now that I've finished my first manuscript I am writing a lot of new poems that are beginning to gather themselves into something. But for now just lots and lots of new poems. 

CG: What do you like doing when you’re not writing or reading submissions for SRR?

SC: When I'm not writing I would usually like to be writing. I like to run. Take photographs. Look at photographs. Get lost in YouTube music videos. Read essays and interviews. 

CG:   Where can we read your own work?

SC: Here's a list with links: http://sarahcerta.tumblr.com/poetry